[New York Daily News] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 21:09:41 GMT
Kristian Winfield: Knicks have all the culture the Nets ever wanted as divide grows between teams
[CBS Sports] – Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:35:11 GMT
- Knicks’ Josh Hart references Nickelodeon meme to describe situation of former Villanova teammate Mikal Bridges
- Knicks’ Josh Hart Trolls Mikal Bridges, Says Nets Star Is Squidward in SpongeBob Meme
- Like That Spongebob Meme: Mikal Bridges Marinates in Nets’ Sorrowful Culture, Forcing Best Friend to Make Damning Statement
- Josh Hart Calls Mikal Bridges ‘Squidward’ After Knicks Beat Nets for 5th Straight Time
- Josh Hart compares Mikal Bridges’ Nets situation to gloomy Squidward window meme
[New York Post] – Sun, 24 Mar 2024 07:28:00 GMT
Knicks switch out Precious Achiuwa for Jericho Sims at backup center spot
[New York Post] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 21:16:49 GMT
Nets’ Mikal Bridges hits unreal 62-foot buzzer-beater to end half vs. Knicks
[Posting and Toasting] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 15:00:00 GMT
- Knicks Bulletin: “Randle is just working out. That’s all.”
- Julius Randle’s absence proving just how valuable he is to Knicks
- Julius Randle Injury Update: Latest on Knicks star’s return ahead of game vs Warriors (March 18)
- What to expect when Julius Randle returns to the court for the Knicks
- Knicks face tough decision over Julius Randle’s availability
[New York Post] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 16:20:00 GMT
Charles Barkley called David Stern’s bluff about NBA ‘betting’ banishment: Mark Jackson
[Daily Knicks] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 21:00:00 GMT
Stat shows after effects of Knicks-Pistons trade have been laughably bad
[New York Post] – Sat, 23 Mar 2024 21:14:47 GMT
- Donte DiVincenzo, Miles McBride step up for Knicks in win over Nets
- Knicks 105-93 Nets (Mar 23, 2024) Game Recap
- Scenes from McBride beating McBrooklyn
- Deuce McBride, Donte DiVincenzo carry Knicks on off night for Jalen Brunson
- Brooklyn Nets flattened by New York Knicks in unwatchable fourth quarter, lose 105-93
[New York Post] – Sun, 24 Mar 2024 10:41:56 GMT
Knicks’ Miles McBride exudes ‘mental toughness’ in stellar 48-minute effort
60 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2024.03.24)”
Regarding Josh Hart’s minutes, I don’t think many coaches would employ him the same way that Thibs does for 40+ minutes. But he has played heavy minutes for other coaches. I understand that none of his previous teams were playoff teams. But it seems that he is widely regarded as a 25-35 minute player.
His lack of consistent shooting is certainly a problem. But if he could shoot, wouldn’t he be close to a max-level player?
I think you have to be careful with him situationally. Miami seemed to figure out how to defend the team so that they could basically dare Hart to shoot the 3. Part of the reason it worked is that Randle, RJ, IQ, and Grimes couldn’t hit the side of a barn in our losses to Miami, and Mitch and iHart were obviously not options from out there. You can’t have him on the floor against a team like Miami unless there are 3 reliable 3pt shooters on the floor with him.
So this year, I could see Thibs running him out there with Brunson, DDV, and OG for extended minutes. And if he’s in for DDV with Brunson, OG and Randle, then iHart has to be the C because you are going to need his playmaking.
What I’m saying is that Thibs is absolutely going to use Josh Hart way more than 15-20 minutes, and that it could work well if he is careful about having him out there with the wrong lineups, especially in crunch time. He’s a very, very valuable player in every way but shooting, so it’s not a mistake to play him that much in and of itself.
Typically annoying game, combining both our difficulties in matinees with our usual tendency to play with our food against Brooklyn. But my goodness, that fourth quarter surge was something.
I remain amazed by how far Deuce has come. He seemed like a player for whom the college and G-League shooting simply wasn’t going to translate, and now he’s a legit sniper. And not completely useless off the dribble, though we still could use a real backup PG.
At this point, it’s increasingly feeling like Julius either isn’t coming back this year, or will come back so diminished that we’ll wish he’d been kept out. Which would be a shame, because imagine what this team could do if it had his offensive gravity and ability to self-generate offense, to take the playmaking burden off Brunson a little and give Deuce, DDV, and (when he’s back) OG better spacing.
It’d be really nice to get him back just so we didn’t have to play any of these Detroit bums. We could end up really missing Grimes this post-season.
If this does happen, I guess we start Hart at the 3 and have him play big minutes? Bojan & Burks are almost unplayable
BPL, here’s a representative video from 1964 that illustrates how differently the game was played then. Suffice it to say that Wilt did way more coasting then than he would if he played today. He was constantly trailing plays and jogging up the court. He never chased guys around on the perimeter after being switched onto a guard in a high PnR. He never had to close out on a 3-pt shooter.
That’s not to diminish what he accomplished. Just to stay healthy, especially given the schedule and what was expected of him every night, it’s amazing that he could do that. But he would not have been able to do it today for an entire season. No way. And I think LeBron or Giannis probably could have done it back then if they played the way he did.
“I remain amazed by how far Deuce has come. He seemed like a player for whom the college and G-League shooting simply wasn’t going to translate, and now he’s a legit sniper. And not completely useless off the dribble, though we still could use a real backup PG.”
I always had faith that Deuce was better than what he showed, and that the shooting would come around. My guess is that part of it was a confidence thing, but that he also tweaked his mechanics. His shot looks a little more balanced and less sling-shotty. Even his running gait seems a bit different to me, although that might be an illusion. But the kid has definitely improved in a sustainable way, and he should continue to improve if he keeps working on his handle and footwork.
That’s what I found frustrating about Grimes, and to a lesser degree, Obi. Even though they were hard workers, they seemed to hit an improvement wall. I’m not seeing that with Deuce.
What is also cool about Deuce’s emergence is that he might become a very valuable trade chip on his contract. I hope we keep him but it is at least possible.
“At this point, it’s increasingly feeling like Julius either isn’t coming back this year, or will come back so diminished that we’ll wish he’d been kept out.”
I dunno, I’m cautiously optimistic that he comes back at something close to 100%. He will have fresh, healthy legs and his injury was to his non-shooting arm. I don’t think he would be continuing this process if he wasn’t making progress towards a reasonably healthy return. It will take a lot of additional strength in the small muscles of the shoulder to get it to the point where re-injury concerns are minimized, and he might not be all the way there yet, but I think he will get there.
FWIW, Deuce has now played as many Knicks minutes this year as Grimes, and leads him in every statistical category except defensive rebounding.
So at the cost of three 2nd round picks, The Knicks essentially replaced RJ, IQ and Grimes in the rotation with OG, DDV, and Deuce. Not sure how that will age, but it looks pretty good right now.
So at the cost of three 2nd round picks, The Knicks essentially replaced RJ, IQ and Grimes in the rotation with OG, DDV, and Deuce.
I know that is the result but seems too flattering as you have to include the AB/BB part in there. For example, if they just traded Grimes, they would not have given up draft picks and received perhaps 1 or 2 seconds.
Looking a bit further at this year’s potential playoff rotation vs. last year’s:
2022-23
Starters: Mitch, Julius, RJ, Brunson, Grimes
Bench: iHart, JHart, IQ, Obi
2023-34
Starters: iHart, Julius, OG, Brunson, DDV
Bench: Mitch, JHart, Deuce, Bojan/Burks
You could add to the above post that we also swapped out Obi for Bojan/Burks and acquired 2 lousy seconds in the process.
It could be argued that we lost shot creation with RJ and IQ and point-of-attack defense with Grimes, but gained a DPoY-level defender in OG and a more versatile starting 2 in DDV. The difference between Obi and Bojan/Burks is probably marginal, but if you consider Precious as a throw-in fringe rotation player, I think that’s a net win.
The most important takeaway is that we made a pretty dramatic remaking of the rotation without either giving up a single first rounder or taking on any bad salary. That is not quite the stuff of Executive of the Year, but it is pretty impressive. If the Knicks decided to fire Leon and Thibs, I think that whoever took over would be quite happy to inherit this situation.
“I know that is the result but seems too flattering as you have to include the AB/BB part in there. For example, if they just traded Grimes, they would not have given up draft picks and received perhaps 1 or 2 seconds.”
One of the main causes of strife here is that some are more focused on results, while others are more about process. The scenarios I’m painting above are all about results and ignores the process of attaining those results. I would concede that there are legitimate gripes about specific elements of the process, and that the results would be even better if the process was more refined. But the results from 30,000 feet look pretty good, especially in comparison to what was expected when Leon hired Thibs and went the hybrid route, and later on with the incineration and rudderless mess process narratives, etc.
It helps a lot knowing that he’s also injured and might have been unavailable for the postseason anyway.
Fournier for Burks has been a wash. That essentially means Leon turned Grimes & Obi* into Bojan. Barring a still possible Bojan breakout, it will likely end up being a meaningless exchange of five guys who didn’t matter.
* the two seconds we used were the ones we got for Obi.
Have to root for the Heat and the Lakers today (disgusting)
Z-man, my argument was not meant to be a results v process argument, bur rather a results v results argument. In fact, I have zero issues with the process.
For me the important thing is that Deuce is playing like we hoped an optimal AB would be playing and AB is playing like we feared Deuce might. Certainly rather have that than the other way around both from a roster construction and cap perspective.
I tried to open your link, but I couldn’t view it. Fortunately I got to see almost all of Wilt’s professional career . Yes, the game was played somewhat differently. Today’s players are better shooters and ball handlers. You say Jokic has to chase 3 point shooters all over the floor and I dispute that because Jokic takes plenty of plays off on defense and hangs in the paint and watches people fly past him to the rim. It is pretty hard to score 50 points a night with 27 rebounds and a million blocks and at the same time take a lot of possessions off.
One thing Jokic and Embiid don’t have to withstand is guys like Wilt, Willis Reed, Jabbar and Nate Thurmond pounding on each other all elbows and assholes in the post every single play with the non rules of the 60’s and the 70’s.
And look how cut huge guys like Wilt and Nate Thurmond and Jabbar were. they were in shape to play big minutes. Then compare to Jokic and Embiid.
I just picked Wilt because his numbers were so incredible, but who ran as much as John Havlicek. He played a long great career averaging > 40 minutes for 5 consecutive years from 29-34. The only differences was he was flying around screens 17 feet from the basket and not 25.
You want to talk about above the rim high flyers? Michael Jordan was the highest of the high flyers and played huge minutes his entire career and played all 82 games averaging 37.0 minutes at 39.
IMO the gnashing of teeth over minutes is largely overblown.
https://youtu.be/xa2rKIBQwjo
So right now we’re 42-28, meaning there’s only 12 games to finish the regular season. Between the remaining games, i think there’s 7 easy games and 5 “not easy” games (with different grades of difficulty).
The 7 easy are: vs DET, @TOR, @SAS, @CHI, @CHI, vs BRK, vs CHI. Let’s say we lose one and go 6-1 here. 48 wins!!!
Then we have the “not easy” games: vs OKC, @MIA, vs SAC, @MIL, @BOS. We’ll probably go 1-4, 2-3 or 3-2 here, right? So at least 49 wins!! But it’s most likely that we’ll finish with 50 or 51 wins!
I predicted 48 wins, and 43% of the voters were with me on the 47-49 wins, so it’s good to see that the Knicks did better than what we thought they’d do. We weren’t counting on having OG, but we also weren’t counting on not having Randle for as longs as it’s been. One thing balances the other, in my opinion.
Let’s hope we’ll be healthy for the playoffs and can crush Celtics hopes to the ground. 😀
The most interesting thing about Thibs playing Deuce so many minutes and starting him with Brunson is that he’s smaller than Quickley but he didn’t do that with Quickley despite his favorable stats together with Brunson and more natural fit.
I’ve said this previously, but I don’t think the issue is just minutes. It’s giving players a heavy workload when they are already nursing injuries. There’s no way you are going to recover as quickly if you are playing big minutes with pain in your knee, elbow, ankle, Achilles etc… You may even make it worse or hurt something else compensating.
Following up on Cyber’s post above, I think we have a really good shot of catching the Cavs. Of course, the Magic do too given their pretty easy schedule
For some bizarre scheduling reason, the Cavs play the Hornets 3 more times. Their only other “gimme” is the Sixers. The other games are all either toss ups or likely losses (Nuggets, Clips, Suns on the road)
So let’s say they go 5-7. That means if we go 6-6 we get 3rd with the tiebreaker.
So basically if we take care of business against the dregs we can grab the 3rd spot, which would obviously be huge in terms of avoiding the Boston juggernaut for one round.
‘Fortunately I got to see almost all of Wilt’s professional career.’
Presuming you started in your early teens, that puts you in your mid to late 70s?
Kudos.
“The most interesting thing about Thibs playing Deuce so many minutes and starting him with Brunson is that he’s smaller than Quickley but he didn’t do that with Quickley despite his favorable stats together with Brunson and more natural fit.”
Strat, it’s one of two possibilities or maybe both:
1)We are in more dire straits depth wise than we tended to be when IQ was still here. Thibs will experiment more with size if he doesn’t have another choice.
2)IQ was a brilliant team defender, but just ok one on one. Whereas Deuce’s strength on that end is hounding individual players and fighting through screens. So even though he’s shorter than IQ, Thibs may look at it as a defensive pairing he can live with more easily than Brunson and IQ.
Alan,
I think you are probably right, though I wish he would have tried it more with Quickley.
I can’t be the only one who would kinda sorta prefer to play the Magic in the first round than any of Indy/Miami/Philly, right? At full strength I just don’t see how the Magic could hang with us offensively. Obviously this changes if Embiid isn’t playing or is heavily compromised.
I don’t feel nearly strongly enough about this to try to get cute with seed manipulation, though. Win as many games as possible as let the dominoes fall where they may.
Re: Deuce, the 3PT shooting is the biggest factor in him becoming a rotation player, but because of his strong NCAA/G-League shooting numbers I’m almost more surprised at his improvement at the rim. He’s still not good at either getting there or finishing, but he’s quietly moved into the 37th percentile for combo guards at rim frequency and the 47th percentile in terms of finishing.
As an elite 3PT shooter and defensive menace, that’s proving to be more than enough. And you better believe I’m betting on Deuce McBride to get better, too.
Best case most realistic scenario is Knicks finishing 3rd and Indiana 6th. Don’t see Orlando or Cleveland dropping to 6th so would much prefer Indiana to Miami. Indiana looks scary because of their offense but they’ve fallen off a bit not just cause Hali has been struggling but they no longer have Heild and Mathurin either. Their defense continues to suck so I believe Knicks would beat them similar to how they beat Cleveland last year.
Yeah he still doesn’t have the hanlde or maybe the quickness (or both) to get by guys in a set halfcourt defense, but he’s getting better and driving and finishing if he has an initial lane
Colorado-Marquette was pretty fun for a college game
I think we’d beat the Magic bc of Brunson, but I also think they are the hardest opponent we could face in round 1.
Defensively, the Magic are a beast. Isaac is a nightmare matchup for Randle. And Suggs is the best defender anyone can throw at Brunson. And their second unit is a major strength, which matches up well with our biggest weakness.
Miami is actually the opponent I want the most. Beating them would be a major feather in our cap, and short of winning the East I don’t think anything else would benefit our development more than vanquishing them.
If you’re looking for the easiest matchup, I think it’s Indiana all the way.
Reading today’s blog brought a big smile to my face. It’s so much more fun to think about who we will match up best against than who might be available with the ninth pick.
I had Carolina beating Kentucky for the NCAA title. Even though Kentucky lost in the first round, I’m somehow in the 95th percentile.
Cleveland without a healthy DM and Struss is likely to struggle down the stretch…Think the odds are better for Orlando to take the 3rd seed than us. They also own tie breaker. To me it looks like its a rematch with Cleveland in the 4 vs. 5 seed.
Pacers are the easiest 1st round match up. I don’t want a piece of Miami because of their physicality and the cost of getting out of that series. Rather go up against Boston with a fully healthy team and see how far the gap really is. Miami is a very expensive price to pay for a moral victory. Don’t want the season to end in game six @ Boston with our players out or innefective like we finished last year in South Beach.
The other options are Achiuwa, Burks, & Bojan. It’s a bit different than Donte, Grimes, RJ, Hart, etc.
necessity is the mother of all inventions and, in Thibs case, hopefully learning from past mistakes.
At least Grimes could play defense, which ends up being a major upgrade even if neither can shoot. And honestly, I’m not sure I prefer a healthy Bojan to an injured Grimes. How much worse could Jeffries, Brown, or Shake really be at this point?
Here’s to Bojan and/or Burks snapping out of it!
I think we could miss Grimes next year. Deuce-Grimes-Hart-Mitch would have been a nice bench and it would come in at under $39mm AAV. Hopefully we can replace him in the draft.
Grimes is injured and also was reportedly at odd with Thibs. Even if it doesn’t work out, it was a reasonable win now move for a team that could possibly make a deep playoff run.
We can replace Grimes through the draft or use one of the firsts for a similar player.
I’m trying to figure out how much of my Miami fear is legitimate and how much is leftover from last year. I didn’t like their off season. I thought they screwed up trying to land Dame and had a weaker team coming into this year than last year. I still think that. But somehow I’m still afraid of SPO and Riley finding a way to beat us.
+1 😉
I think the Grimes trade was very forgivable being how widely it was lauded. It still may turn out well if Bojan and Burks pick it up. I don’t expect Grimes to be much better than he is right now, but at full health he’s a good bench guy. But Ben R seems to have been spot-on in his assessment of Burks and Bojan, so it is more about them being bad than Grimes being good.
I’m still holding out hope that it turns out better than it has, but right at this moment it’s looking no bueno.
My boy Tyler Kolek might be playing himself out of our draft range.
I still have PTSD from that Miami series. It is reasonable to say that they will have the two best two-way players on the floor when we play them…one can quibble about Brunson being better than either of them overall but that’s highly debatable, and I think that most objective fans would pick either Jimmy or Bam over Brunson. Beyond that, we should have an edge in talent, but Spo over Thibs might make up for that.
This is why I want to face them.
They’ll figure out something to hinder us. And our coach will either adjust to an adjustment or continue to cast rock repeatedly until it costs him his job.
I’d prefer it be the former, but if he doesn’t have it in him it’s better we find out now.
these afternoon tournament games stink
They didn’t beat the Knicks through some Riley/Spo JuJu. they beat us because Randle got hurt at the end of March and gutted his way through most of the playoffs in sub par fashion due to a serious injury that took a 7 month recovery to get him up to speed, Brunson was banged up missing 10 of the last 16 games yet played well. and IQ and Grimes gave them virtually nothing.
If Randle. Mitch and OG can somehow get healthy enough to play by 2 weeks from now (their 78th game), they have a chance to do some real damage. If not they likely lose any first round match-up. The team they put on the floor last night isn’t good enough to beat any decent team over a series.
There’s nothing wrong with Bojan’s offense that the team getting healthy won’t cure. Nothing will cure his terrible defense though. That’s the part all the TV experts always seem to miss. He’s easily a net negative player.
Burks is also better than he looks for us so far, but still negative.
But none of that is what made the trade bad.
It was fine if you thought Randle would be back at 100%, Mitch would be back 100%, and we were very serious contenders that just needed some bench help because Grimes was hurt.
Other than that, I’ve been saying from the start we got two old net negative guys for a couple of months of bench play in exchange for a young guy with some upside potential who was still worth at least 2 2nd rounders. And we gave up another 2 of our own 2nd rounders.
So it was ~4 2nd rounders for a couple of bench rentals.
How is that good long term thinking?
It was poor long term thinking. It was a win now move for a team with injuries that’s probably still a player away from being a serious win it all all contender when healthy.
The only saving grace was that we can use Bojan’s contract in a trade. So we didn’t blow the value that Fournier’s contract that we would have had if we just brought him back.
I can’t believe we couldn’t do better than this trade for bench help, especially when we needed PG play.
All that said above, I’ll be thrilled if Randle, Mitch and OG are back with a few games remaining, get back into rhythm in the first series and that fully healthy team can compete with a healthy 76ers, Bucks, or Celtics team.
FWIW… https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/nyu-surgeon-breaks-down-knicks-wing-og-anunoby-s-re-injury-recovery/ar-BB1kst9m
Check out the Heat-Cavs score
You weren’t kidding.
14 turnovers through 3 quarters and 36% shooting will get you a 30 point deficit.
So the Knicks are tied in the loss column for the #3 seed. Win against Detroit tomorrow and they’ll be ahead due to the tie breaker.
I think the team that finishes 3rd will have 50+ wins. That would mean we would have to go at least 8-4 to get there. Should be doable if we treat it as the playoffs, which Thibs definitely will, but is it worth it?
The Heat Cavs score does not make me want to face the Heat in the playoffs.
the thunder look really soft in the middle…
On Friday the Heat lost at home by 23 to a Pelicans team without Ingram.
They sure do, geo. Which is why I still think they may be players for iHart with all that cap room.
Poor Evian throws a stinker, 0-5 in 9 sordid minutes.
But Evil Donte finally gets off the bench and goes 6-12 for 17 pts in 25 minutes, with 4 assists. Way to go, Evil!
hopefully, now that we don’t suck so much, maybe, just maybe, the knicks may be an ideal situation for isaiah…
I think he has a very good chance to be our starting center next year…
I can see though the very real chance someone offers him Jarret Allen type money…
he may be worth it too…
I’m hoping the Mrs Hartenstein rumors are true, Geo. Bc if I were Sam Presti and I had that pristine salary cap with Chet & Jalen’s rookie deals for two more seasons, I’d happily throw 3 years, $75mm at iHart to be my anchor in the middle.
I definitely fear Miami more than Indiana or Orlando, those two are too young to make some noise in the playoffs for me and are both still lacking pieces, Indiana can’t really defend and Orlando can’t really score.
I would rather stay away from Philly in the case they get Embiid back and healthy for the playoffs, but if he’s out they won’t do anything too. It’s really about avoiding Miami for me, but they will likely stay in the play in and it’s very unlikely the Bucks will drop.
The 3rd seed should be the objective simply to avoid the Celtics in the 2nd round.
It’s funny how we’re juggling facing the easiest opponent in the first round yet avoiding the Celts in the second round. Something seems weird about that. If we are worried about losing to any team in round 1, seems like the Celtics thing is sort of moot.
I wonder what opposing fanbases are thinking about who they would prefer to face in round 1 and how the Knicks measure up.
More than anything else, I’m hoping that we collect enough info on a reasonably healthy team to make prudent decisions going forward. Beyond that, let the chips fall where they may, sort of in a “be careful what you wish for” kind of way.
Meanwhile the Sixers just convincingly beat the mighty Clips on the road, so even without Embiid they aren’t a pushover, and he’s back on the court doing drills.
Anthony Davis is murdering the Pacers.
43 FTAs for the Lakers is insane.
Honestly, that number of free throws makes me suspicious. But who knows, the Pacers could just have been clumsy or even had a deliberate strategy.